Miami Heat Preparing for Lottery?

Salvageable? Technically, yes. Do the math and you’ll find that with three consecutive 10-4 stretches, followed by a 3-1 finale to the season, the Heat can crawl back to .500 and probably hold a No. 7 or 8 seed in the once-anticipated playoffs. As a bonus, one of those wins only has to take 51.9 seconds, if the Heat can recover from a three-point deficit against the Hawks after the NBA effectively granted Miami the longest timeout in league history. And as an added bonus, the Heat gets to begin that quest with a healthy seven-game homestand that starts Wednesday against the Bulls.

Then, of course, you’ll notice that this Heat team looks far too similar to last season’s Minnesota Timberwolves to come close to accomplishing anything that ambitious.And it’ll only take one loss or an accidental glance at the standings to temper any possible excitement you’ve generated while analyzing such a possibility. Plus, does it really count as a salvage job when the result is just a few extra games in late April that did little for the team’s pride and cost the franchise a lottery pick? Click here for more from the Miami Herald.